Just returned from a Kodiak Brown Bear hunt with Jake Jefferson. He posts on here as Fourtyonesix. He advertised this hunt last fall, and I applied for the draw and booked the hunt when successful.

Had a great trip with fantastic weather and a beautiful bear. Jake really loves to bear hunt, and clearly has them dialed in. We saw 22 different bears on our first day of hunting, including the boar I shot the following day. We watched the boar trying to mate a sow until dark, high on the ridgeline, and made a plan to go after him the following morning.

We found him rather quickly in the morning, but waited an hour or so for the sow to come out of the alders to make sure we had the right bear.

I will fill in a few more details when I'm not so jet lagged. He had a really nice hide, and after ventilating him multiple times with a 375 H+H he was finally down for good.

I am off to take the hide to my taxidermist this afternoon. Only a full lifesize mount will do on this tremendous creatures.

Thanks again to Jake for a great hunt. Had two days of sunny weather on Kodiak, which is incredibly rare, and took advantage of the great weather to seal the deal quickly.

Anyway, here are a few pictures. My camera failed (memory card error?!#@!) so these pictures are courtesy of Jake.

Bill

Awesome!!!!!

Nice bear,congrats!!

great pictures and bear. well done.

Looks like a huge bear, congratulations!

Nice trophy and sounds like a wonderful hunt . What did the skull measure when F&G sealed it ?

26 6/16ths"

REALLY nice bear. Conglads! I've got a bear hunt lined up with Jake for next spring. Bob

Congratulations on a really nice bear.

Congratulation on a fine bear. You have me stoked, I will be with Jake in a little less than 4 months, can't wait.

Nice! What would the age on that bear be you think?

quote:

Originally posted by Fourtyonesix:
26 6/16ths"

Good bear, it's hard to ask a client to pass those up !

Outstanding!
Thanks for sharing.

Ski+3

Very nice Bill, thanks for sharing your success.

As mentioned earlier, we had fantastic weather and after setting up camp in the rain Wednesday night, the weather cleared about dark and it didn't rain again until I was back in the town of Kodiak. Temps were about 40-50 degrees, with a mix of sun and clouds. Mostly light winds.

There were plenty of deer in the area, as well as several fox. We hiked to two lookout knolls on Thursday, spending the day on these two points, and counting 22 different bears in total. Several sows and cubs, and several boars with lone sows as well. Quite a large number of the hides were significantly rubbed. I saw a total of 4 mature boars with good hides. Several other boars, though mature, looked like shaved poodles they were so badly rubbed.

With the warm weather and early spring it seemed prudent to shoot one of the better boars with a great hide, and not try to hold out for a bear that might not exist. Several of the good boars we saw were in spots that would have been very difficult to approach.

Due to an incoming low pressure system, I got back to town very early, and caught a flight back home. This was a short hunt, but I have no complaints. It is best to take advantage of opportunities when they present themselves.

Bill

Fish and game did not give us a guess on his age. His molars where in good shape, fronts were wore down pretty flat, but that happens when bears eat a lot of grass/sand. I would ball park guess him around 10, the wear on his teeth and white claws. Although both can mean nothing....lol I'm just spitballing. He didn't look young, I've shot a five year old bear that was 10 foot but he had a younger look to them.

I always wanted to hunt Kodiak for those giant bears.
Congrats to you guys and this is also another great endorsement for FortyoneSix here.

True adventure

quote:

Originally posted by llamapacker:
Just returned from a Kodiak Brown Bear hunt with Jake Jefferson. He posts on here as Fourtyonesix. He advertised this hunt last fall, and I applied for the draw and booked the hunt when successful.

Had a great trip with fantastic weather and a beautiful bear. Jake really loves to bear hunt, and clearly has them dialed in. We saw 22 different bears on our first day of hunting, including the boar I shot the following day. We watched the boar trying to mate a sow until dark, high on the ridgeline, and made a plan to go after him the following morning.

We found him rather quickly in the morning, but waited an hour or so for the sow to come out of the alders to make sure we had the right bear.

I will fill in a few more details when I'm not so jet lagged. He had a really nice hide, and after ventilating him multiple times with a 375 H+H he was finally down for good.

I am off to take the hide to my taxidermist this afternoon. Only a full lifesize mount will do on this tremendous creatures.

Thanks again to Jake for a great hunt. Had two days of sunny weather on Kodiak, which is incredibly rare, and took advantage of the great weather to seal the deal quickly.

Anyway, here are a few pictures. My camera failed (memory card error?!#@!) so these pictures are courtesy of Jake.

Bill

Congratulations on a fantastic and nice bear! If you don't mind me asking, what bullet did you use in the 375 H&H and how far was the shot?

I'm also interested in which bullet you used. I've got a hunt with Jake next year. I plan on using a 375 Ruger, you can see I interest in your choice.

I used 300 gr Barnes Triple Shocks (TSX). I have absolutely no complaints about these bullets. I have used them on everything from hippo and giraffe in Africa to elk in Utah. They have always performed well.
As an aside, I also load TSX bullets in 375 Ruger for a friend of mine. I load 270 gr TSX for him, at his request.

My initial shot at this bear was approximately 275 yards. It was a very steep uphill shot, and I held for 200 yards, which was a mistake, as I hit him low when standing broadside. My first shot took him through the sternum, breaking it completely and a couple of ribs as well. It did not get the heart or lungs however, so he stayed mobile. A second and third shot as he was running straight away going uphill broke a front leg near the foot, and also sent a bullet along the side of the ribcage and into the meat of his neck, again not getting inside the body cavity and just pissing him off further.
Not my best shooting, but all three at least made contact.
He was very quickly into the alders where I could see his form moving with difficulty. Two shots into the stand of alders (3-4" diameter) did not produce any apparent effect, other than to send him deeper into the alders.

We closed the distance to about 75 yards from the alders, which really means climbing vertically uphill, steeper than any staircase. The sow he was with stayed on the ridgeline above the alders, pacing steadily, so we didn't push the situation. Amazingly, after about 1 hour, the alders started to shake, and the bear struggled up on the ridgeline to join the sow. As he was above the alders, he was now about 150 yards away. One shot into the high shoulder area rolled him immediately off the hill and back into the alders . Again, I was initially sure he would be dead.
Within a few minutes the alders began shaking again, and we could see the progress of the bear downhill through the alders by watching the tops shake. He came out of the alders about 40 yards to my right, pushing with only one good leg and then tumbling downhill until he hit an alder again, so I put two more into his chest cavity at rather close range- 40 yards. This finished him quickly.
Altogether he took 6 hits, although two were mostly superficial. The last shot clearly wasn't needed, but at that point there didn't seem to be any reason to stop shooting if he was moving. None of the bullets were recovered.

Again, not my proudest shooting display, but effective in the end. Realizing this bear was still going UP to his sow with a broken sternum, broken leg, and a chest/neck wound tells you a little about how tough they are.
I am glad he wasn't charging or in any way coming after us.

Bill

I called the shot distance at 200, hind site it felt a lot steeper than it really was! Llamapacker stayed with it and got the job done. It all worked out just fine in the long run.

I would have looked for a bigger one ...ok, NOT!

I've started putting in for the draw, too. Thank you for your story.

Wow that is a Dream hunt ! Congrats on a Great Bear

Sent you a pm, Bob

Great looking bear, nice weather, story to tell about sealing the deal. Sounds like a great hunt to me!

Beautiful brute of a bear, congrats!

Very nice bear! If there were a pool going I'd say 7yrs old and 9ft square, but photo's can be real deceiving. I left Kodiak six yrs ago after living there 10 yrs and will always wish I was back there for good. Four of those years as a certified bear guard for F&W and other private parties, saw a lot of "big"bears" up real close.

Wonderful! Congrats! Can't wait to go back in 4 years!!!!

Nice boar - congrats! Considering how early this Spring showed up, I'm happy you found one with no rubs.

We found a couple with no rubs, but kodiak is known for rubbed bears. Warm springs in other parts of the state and the bears look just fine. Off to the Alaska peninsula for brown bears next week, we'll see how they are doing down there!

Congrats on an impressive bear! Its a bonus when all things come together. Can you comment on the load and rifle? Thanks

quote:

With the warm weather and early spring it seemed prudent to shoot one of the better boars with a great hide, and not try to hold out for a bear that might not exist.

It is best to take advantage of opportunities when they present themselves.

Bill

Hopefully most readers took note of this very wise advise !
Unless you are a dedicated hunter after a specific type of animal and are willing to go home without one I recommend you listen to your guide's advise, decide if you would be satisfied with the animal as trophy on your wall, and then try to make it happen.

The best time to shoot a trophy is when you can !

We found this yesterday on an island. A brown bear had backed up against a rock and blew his tappen along with about a bushel of poop. Some is 3' high. About a 8" track, the scavanger's are feasting on dead mure's here, probably what this guy is doing too.

M774now,
The rifle I used is a Winchester model 70 classic stainless / synthetic. I've had this rifle for maybe 15 years. It is topped with a Leupold 2.5x8 VariX3 in detachable Leupold mounts.
The load is 76.0 grains of IMR 4350 with a 300 grain Barnes TSX lit by a federal magnum match primer.
This load consistently delivers 2550 fps across the Oehler chronograph, with an SD of about 10 fps. It prints into an inch reliably, and has been a steadfast companion on many hunts. It is now primarily an Alaskan rifle for me, as it handles the weather nicely.
I prefer a .416 Rigby when in Africa after the really big stuff, but that gun is just too pretty to take into the rain and salt of coastal Alaska.
I use "lesser" caliber rifles on sheep hunts and general deer /elk, but this .375 has been a rock solid choice for many trips.

Bill

quote:

Originally posted by Fourtyonesix:
We found a couple with no rubs, but kodiak is known for rubbed bears. Warm springs in other parts of the state and the bears look just fine. Off to the Alaska peninsula for brown bears next week, we'll see how they are doing down there!

Interesting. Early and warm springs down here make it extremely hard to find an un-rubbed bear. I just assumed it worked that way all over...

Surprisingly no. Some areas rubs are rare, other areas they all rub the same. Similar to south east bears that are known for a forehead rub and the backs of their paws, my understanding and from what I've seen is the Alaska peninsula has fewer rubbed bears than what kodiak seems to have. Also fur on Browns in eastern pws are more uneven than say a bear from
South central. Just stuff I've seen...maybe different observations for others...

Congrats on one sweet bear!

Listen to your guide, If you trusted him to guide you then trust him as to what you need to do while on your hunt..

I have seen the same on buffalo hunts when hunting was unusually thin for whatever reason, usually weather...and a 38 or 39 inch buffalo were fairly common but he 40s and larger just were not showing up, until later in the season as a rule...

The bottom line is a 38 inch bull with big bosses on the wall is a mere one inch on each horn compared to a 40 incher, so how many folks could look at that trophy and say " oh my, he's short of a 40 incher", and if he says that then shoot him!!

Unless your a foregone trophy hunter with a tape in your pocket and financially sound, and a lot of buffalo experience behind you, you might be better off shooting a slightly lesser bull as to going home empty...

At any rate it's probably at least a flexable consideration you should make before you hunt and decide if your willing to take that chance, and if you are, then at least go for a 42 to 44 incher..

Sometimes its chicken and sometimes its guts and feather in fair chase hunting, but the hunt itself determines success, not so much the size of your trophy, or at least that's always been my opinion, Those memroies cannot be destroyed, they are the real trophy...